Pavlova by the chef

Arnaud Delvenne is the Belgian finalist of the 2022 season of Top Chef.

He recently opened his own restaurant in Liège under the name Nono.

In collaboration with Sophie Pendeville, he hosts the programme A la sauce belge in which he regularly puts Columbus eggs in the spotlight.

Arnaud’s vision of cooking is generous, sincere, but light.

Ingredients

For the meringue

· 100 g Columbus egg whites (3 eggs)

· 200 g fine sugar

· 100 g powder sugar

For the coulis

· raspberries

· redcurrants

· strawberries

· blueberries

· 100 g fine sugar

· 1 lemon

· Forest fruit brandy (optional)

For the goat’s cheese cream

· 250 g of fresh goat cheese

· 20 cl of liquid fresh cream

· Flower honey (liquid)

· Vanilla pod

· Freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Start by making the meringue. Whip the egg whites until stiff. Whisk in the fine sugar while mixing with an electric whisk and finish by adding the powder sugar to make the meringue firmer. Spread the meringue on baking paper and bake at 90°C (to avoid colouring the meringue). Allow to bake for about 2 hours and check regularly.
Make a red fruit coulis. Take half of each type of red fruit and mix them in a blender. Make a syrup: bring 100g sugar and 100g water to the boil and add the juice of half a lemon. Pour the desired amount of syrup into the blender and blend. Add a little brandy if you’d like. Strain the coulis to remove the seeds.
Cut up the other half of the berries and place them in a bowl. To give the strawberries a nice colour, add the remaining sugar syrup to the fruit salad.
Prepare the goat cream cheese . Soften the goat cheese with a little bit of liquid cream, sweeten with flower honey and add the vanilla bean seeds and pepper to counterbalance the acidity of the goat cheese. Mix with an electric mixer and transfer to a piping bag.
To dress the plates, arrange small balls of goat’s cream in a pretty pattern. Add the red fruits, then the pieces of meringue and pour the coulis in the centre of the plate.